We finally made it to Hawaii, and it is beautiful! I'm writing from the end of our first day here, so let me catch you up on our journey and what we've been doing so far. Our flight left from Seattle at 4pm on Monday. However, my mother had some work to do from her laptop, and since she's the person who payed for our flight and hotel, we showed up four- yes four hours early for our flight. I'm not the most patient person (especially when it comes to waiting for something exciting) so I proceeded to get increasingly intoxicated on expensive airport liquor. This, I do not recommend. I'm fairly sure I spent a good hour and a half staring confoundedly at the magazines before drunkenly and halfheartedly choosing one that had about two dozen pictures of smoothies on it.
Usually, depending on the season and airport, you should allow yourself about an hour or two for security and bag check. Unless, of course, you're traveling for Christmas, then ah... well good luck. We finally boarded our plane on time (by this point I had sobered up a bit) and began our six hour flight to the Lihue (pronounced Līhuʻe) airport. I sat in the middle... yay. We flew Alaska Airlines, and they charged us a $15 bag check fee (grrr.) If you can, I would suggest flying with Southwest Airlines, as they allow each person TWO free checked bags, which is nice. There is no wifi for about 5 1/2 hours of the flight (because the plane is over open ocean). They gave us free mai tais toward the end of the flight, which is a nice gesture, but made me sick to my stomach later. The trip was boring and long and cramped, but no worries- we didn't come to Hawaii for the plane trip.
The first thing I noticed when we landed and disembarked the plane (around 8pm local time), was that the airport was hot and humid and lacking air conditioning, but most places in Hawaii are. Also- everything was open air- which is very different from buildings in the Pacific Northwest. Furthermore, instead of listing things in English followed by Spanish, signs will first show English followed by Japanese! But moving on to less mundane topics...
We got our rental car and headed off to our hotel- the Kapa'a Shores Resort Condominiums. My parents are part of a "resort share" program that is similar to timeshare, and each unit across the country that they've stayed at has a full kitchen. This is very cool, because it allows you to make your own meals from local foods. I highly recommend seeking out lodgings with kitchen space if your budget allows. We arrived and checked the place out- it is a one bedroom unit, full kitchen, Murphy bed in the living room (guess who gets to sleep here?), with a lanai (Hawaiian for patio?) that looks across a beautiful ocean view with a little rocky beach... incredible. It was too dark to really see when we arrived, but I woke up with the sun this morning to get some pictures!
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| The sun rising over the Pacific |
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| The little beach outside our hotel (not a swimming beach) |
Not too shabby, eh? The sand on our beach is an orangey-red hue because the soil on Kauai is red. They even make shirts that are called "red dirt shirts" that they dye using the pigments in the soil. I definitely plan on getting one for the ol' boyfriend who is currently freezing his rear off in Seattle.
My mom joined me to watch the sunrise, and to see the little
crabs scuttling madly around on the sand, and then we went inside and made breakfast (Kitchen! Woo hoo!). However, we found our breakfast severely lacking in the tropical fruit department, so we got dressed and went in search of a farmer's market. My dad chose today to lay around in the sun and read, so he was left behind. We hopped in our rental car and were only driving about 5 minutes when we came across a local farmer's market in the parking lot of the Coconut Market shopping center. It had the same feel of a farmer's market back home, but the goods for sale were much more unique! Imagine getting a bouquet of tropical flowers for six bucks! How about three starfruit for one dollar? Check it out-
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| The market |
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| Our market spoils! |
Needless to say we were totally thrilled with our discovery! After we came back an unloaded our purchases, we located a K Mart so I could get some sandals and a swimming suit. Then we went to the grocery store to stock up on some basic food stuffs that we couldn't find at the market (just FYI, Hawaiian grocery stores run out of things periodically that they can't replace super quickly because a lot of things need to be imported... like milk). Then we checked out the local liquor store to stock up on out pina colada fixings. After this is when we stumbled upon another amazing food discovery- Waipouli Restaurant, Home Cooking. This little hole in the wall restaurant has some of the most amazing food. Its a little Hawaiian style diner that serves up some of the best local cuisine on the island (or so a tour guide sitting near by told us) and after trying my Ono (Hawaiian fish), rice, and pork tofu- I must say that I am inclined to believe him. Hawaiian food is interesting, because it contains a blend of Asian, American, and Polynesian ingredients. One of the dishes on the menu that caught my eye was called the "loco moco". Since there were no descriptions of the food under the names of the plates, I asked our server about it. She told me that the loco moco consists of two scoops of rice, topped with a hamburger patty, one over easy fried egg, and a hefty piling of gravy. This is Hawaiian food in a nutshell.
This place, its culture, and the environment here are absolutely enchanting and enticing! Just breathing the air here refreshes your soul. After we got back from our escapades, I floated around in the pool and stared at the clouds and palms- just mediating on how fortunate I am to be here in this beautiful place! I hope tomorrow brings as much, or more excitement and surprise as today did! I can't wait to see what's next! Until then!
Mahalo!
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